With the popularity of laptop computers, virtually all major business enterprises use e-mail for internal and external communications, mobile phones are commonplace, and many people carry personal digital assistants (PDAs) with wireless communication capability. Internet cafes are found in most major cities, airports routinely have Internet kiosks, and many hotel rooms are equipped with data communication facilities.
With these developments come limitations and frustrations-laptops and notebooks frequently require special applications to be installed. If work needs to be done when a particular computing system is unavailable, oftentimes the work must be postponed until the system is available. In addition, some employees do not have laptops but nonetheless need to access information and applications when away from the office. Data on laptops must be synchronized with data on the enterprise's central computers in order to mitigate file contention, incorrect versions and overall confusion. Before employees can work on their laptops, they must be certain that they have the latest information, and that after they have completed working on data, the corresponding data at the centrally housed location is updated.
Many enterprises have realized significant benefits from client/server technology, but this typically involves installation of specialized software on client systems, thereby limiting access to only devices with the specialized software thereon as well as placing a maintenance burden on the organization, which must propagate changes and updates to all individual workstations, laptop computers, etc. As organizations implement individual applications, frequently in different languages, functionality and data often became fragmented.
A growing amount of valuable information is available from web-based service providers. However, locating the information can be time-consuming let alone the problems associated with receiving informations as disparate chunks of data. Consequently, the aforementioned limitations can hamper individual's ability to perform work at a desired moment. The information would be more valuable if the information were made available to corporate applications and merged with enterprise data. Competitive business pressures make this issue even more urgent. For example, not so long ago, it was acceptable for a salesperson to return to a customer's office the following day with requested information. Today, however, immediacy and convenience are key elements to remaining competitive in a global economy; with the Internet, people have become accustomed to accessing data on demand and taking immediate action with respect thereto. Any work that must be postponed because of in access to applications or data can mean lost opportunity.
With a Remote Desktop feature in some versions of MICROSOFT® WINDOWS®, a computer can be remotely controlled from another office, from home, or while traveling. Such remote access allows data, applications, and network resources that are on an office computer to be utilized, without an individual having to be physically present in an office. A Remote Desktop file (.rdp) file contains substantially all information necessary for connection to a remote computer, including settings that were configured when the file was saved. Any number of .rdp files can be customized, including files for connecting to the same computer with different settings. For example, a file that connects to a computer can be saved in full screen mode and another file that connects to the same computer can be saved in 800×600 screen size. Although such remote access capabilities greatly facilitate overcoming some of the aforementioned problems associated with information access, the overall user client-side experience is far from desirable as compared to the experience at the host computer end. In other words, emulation of applications, icons, etc. at the data accessing end in conventional remote access systems is primitative and bland, which is understandable given that integrity with respect to application functionality is an overriding concern. However, there is an unmet need with respect to enriching an overall user experience during remote computer access/interaction.